Economists: Current measures won't meet German energy goals

Germany won't achieve its targets for phasing out fossil fuels and ramping up renewable energy by 2030 with the measures currently in place, according to a think tank report released Wednesday.

The respected German Institute for Economic Research, or DIW, examined the goals that Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government set itself since coming to power last year following an election campaign in which combating climate change was one of the biggest issues.

Their economists calculated that the current roll-out of electric vehicles, solar and wind energy won't be fast enough to reach those targets.

The government's goal of putting 15 million electric cars on the road by 2030 would require 130,000 such vehicles to be registered every month—up from 30,000 at present. The speed at which solar panels are installed would need to triple compared with the rate seen in the past year, while the erection of wind turbines needs to quadruple, the report found.

"If the government doesn't want to fall behind on achieving its goals then it needs to implement concrete and far-reaching steps soon," said Wolf-Peter Schill, an energy economist at the Berlin-based DIW.